APC BIOPOD Biometric Password Manager (USB)

by APC

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 1 x 2 inches ; 7 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0001V2N62
• Item model number: BIOPOD
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #3 in Electronics > Security & Surveillance > Biometrics
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 10, 2004

Product Description

Manufacturer

As security concerns continue to grow, so do the number of passwords.The Biometric Password Manager provide users a convenient and secure way to manage and access multiple security phrases and codes. This product reads and identifies users by automatically accessing password protected applications and Web sites.

Product Description

PROVIDES USERS A CONVENIENT & SECURE WAY TO MANAGE & ACCESS MULTIPLE SECURITY PHRASES & CODES IDENTIFIES USERS BY FINGERPRINTS AUTOMATICALLY ALLOWS ACCESS TO PASSWORD-PROTECTED APPLICATIONS & WEB SITES ELIMINATES THE NEED FOR PASSWORD LISTS CONTROLS USER ACCESS BY KEEPING OUT UNAUTHORIZED USERS REGISTRATION FOR UP TO 20 DIFFERENT USERS FAST USER SWITCHING FOR WINDOWS XP INCLUDES SOFTWARE CD USB CABLE & MANUAL 2-YEAR WARRANTY

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cool AND useful, October 9, 2004

By 

R. O. Frankel (Washington, DC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: APC BIOPOD Biometric Password Manager (USB) (Personal Computers)

I decided a while ago that $20 was the golden price for fingerprint scanners - the price at which they are worth their cost. However, I got impatient and I'm glad I did. I managed to get my Biopod for $40 including shipping and it has been worth it simply in cool factor. Fortunately the annoying voice files are easily replacable (/Softex/Omnipass/Sounds/) and I have gotten plenty of compliments and "wows" from people in my dorm when my computer asks me in a female British accent for "biometric authorization". Just find one of the many text-to-speech sites out there with an interactive demo, and record your own sound files. As far as authorization goes, I have not seen a false positive from my other fingers or my friends' fingers, and the only time I get a negative is when I scan the wrong part of my finger. The Biopod recognizes my finger from a pretty good range of angles and different placements.

Cool factor aside, the Biopod has saved me a lot of password reset e-mails. It's not secure to use the same password on lots of different web sites these days and it was getting really hard for me to remember them all. When the bundled Omnipass software detects a password field in your active window it prompts you to enter your username and password in the window (for the last time), click on the Omnipass bubble that popped up, and then click on the window containing the fields. From that point on, whenever you visit that site you will be prompted for your fingerprint and logged in. On some sites with certain types of login methods, Omnipass will only be able to fill in the information, not automatically submit it as well, but I have found this to be very rarely the case. The Biopod is a huge time saver. Also, not that I have much cause to use it as a college student, but the encryption feature of the Omnipass software is pretty cool and I'm sure it's useful for those with sensitive data, whether you are hiding it from competitors or your parents.

I'm running XP Home SP1 and had no trouble setting up, installing, and enrolling. I've noticed no slowdown in any way whatsoever since installing the software, although admittedly not much slows down an Athlon 64 3000 and a GB of RAM.

I would strongly reccomend the Biopod to anyone looking to store their passwords, protect sensitive data, or just indulge their geeky side. If you want to wait for it to be $30 I wouldn't blame you, but it's a great little device.

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why didn't I get this sooner?!?!?!?, October 8, 2004

By 

Amazon Geek (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: APC BIOPOD Biometric Password Manager (USB) (Personal Computers)

I use Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2, and had been using a virtual wallet to keep track of all my passwords. This product almost completely eliminated the need for the virtual wallet. The Biopod was up and running and was enrolling fingerprints in no time with absolutely no problems.

There are a few minor issues that are easily overcome:
The default audio instruction is annoying ("Place your finger on the sensor") -Switching to "Beeps only" is much more palatable.
File encryption is a little slow. But hey, at least the files are secure!
The software doesn't work with some websites, such as banking sites. When using Internet Explorer, I get the notice saying that it is "Safeguarding my information" and replaces my ID and Password with asterisks. Remembering one or two passwords is a lot easier that 100!

I would recommend this product to anyone using Windows XP and wants to stay secure without memorizing a lot of passwords.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars APC Should be Embarassed, March 22, 2005

By 

A. User - See all my reviews

This review is from: APC BIOPOD Biometric Password Manager (USB) (Personal Computers)

The device is actually a product of Softex, Inc. APC is just putting their logo on it and reselling it. People are supposed to feel comfortable buying it because of APC's name recognition and (up to now) good reputation.

The device does work - basically. Compared with Microsoft's device, fingerprint recognition is awkward. I find that I sometimes have to adjust my finger position several times before it will "recognize" me. The Microsoft device appears to be far more tolerant of slightly different finger placements.

When used on Windows XP, the Omnipass software that accompanies the device integrates with that operating system's Fast User Switching ("FUS") mechanism. So if you have multiple users (as for example in a family), you can enroll each person and have Windows automatically log them on to their accounts just by recognizing their individual fingerprint patterns. You can also do a Quick Switch from current user to different user just by placing (different user's) finger in the sensor. This is way more slick than pressing the "User" button on a Logitech keyboard or doing the old Windows+L key combination.

Unfortunately the Omnipass software is really flaky. When used in a multi-user environment on Windows XP with Fast User Switching, the program will crash / become non-functional quite rapidly after doing just a few switches between users. For example I alternated today between my main account (index finger) and my test account (middle finger) on Windows XP switching back & forth about 3 times. That's it - the program has stopped working and will not work again until I reboot.

I had two problems open with APC back in the spring & summer of 2004 dealing with this product. The APC support staff seemed completely ill-equipped to address / understand the issues - perhaps it's because APC is just "fronting" the sale & distribution of the product for the real vendor Softex Inc. In both cases they kept closing my problems every 30 days (their problem management software) even though I was waiting for a response from them and the problem was unresolved. I never did get resolutions and my dialogue with the APC support engineers left much to be desired. I basically had to "teach" the engineers how the product is supposed to work, explain what it does, and then explain why it's not working properly. Really...

Anyway my perception is that we're just in the early days of a flood of such devices / biometric recognition security software solutions. I think the devices by APC & Microsoft that are out currently are just the initial volleys by the software/hardware vendors. I'm sure that there will be far more robust solutions out in the next 6 months. My recommendation - avoid this product (even though it's cheap - less than 50% of what I paid for it 1 year ago).

Lastly when you use a product like this - to store passwords to financial & other websites, I think one needs to confirm that the software used can be trusted. (See Microsoft, Symantec & other vendors' Trusted Computing initiatives). I have found - from time to time - strange Internet activity on my computer that seems to be related to Omnipass's "WebLink" software update capability. The endpoint for the traffic is neither a site at APC nor at Softex Inc. but what appears to be an end-user on a high speed Internet service somewhere in Texas. Sure, it's probably just checking my version with the currently released version of the software, but in the back of my mind I'm wondering - "are they harvesting the passwords from my Omnipass password vault"? Well basically it seems strange...